Blair on Broadway

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Blair on Broadway: A West End Satirical Stumble

"Blair on Broadway" staggered onto the West End stage in late 2007, a musical satire at the Arts Theatre that aimed to skewer Tony Blair’s premiership but instead skewered itself. Opening on November 19 and limping to a close on December 29 after a mere six weeks, this short-lived fiasco—penned by Iain Hollingshead with music by Timothy Muller—promised a biting take on New Labour’s golden boy. Starring Chris Bush as Blair, it floundered under its own amateurish weight, earning brutal reviews and a swift exit. As of March 23, 2025, it’s a cautionary tale of political theatre gone awry, its echoes faint but cringe-worthy.

A Misguided Vision

The show emerged from Hollingshead’s book Blair on Broadway, with Muller’s score and Jessica Dawes’ direction attempting to frame Blair as “the greatest actor of our age” in a faux-Broadway revue of his career. After a fringe run as Tony! The Blair Musical, it hit the West End with a £200,000 budget, banking on Blair’s divisive legacy—think Iraq and air-guitar charisma—to draw crowds. Producers Nicholson Green Productions pushed it into the 299-seat Arts Theatre, but the leap from small stages to Theatreland exposed its shaky foundations, from nursery-level production values to a script that forgot to sharpen its teeth.

A Plot Lost in Translation

The premise casts Blair as a rock-star wannabe narrating his decade in power, flanked by caricatures like Cherie (Holly Sumpton), Gordon Brown (Gary Trainor), and Peter Mandelson (Howard Samuels). Songs like “Blair on Broadway!” and Cherie’s “I’ll Stand By My Man” stumble through his rise, fall, and tabloid-friendly quirks—think “Yo, Blair!” and cash-for-honours. Yet, the satire barely scratches the surface, offering nursery-rhyme lyrics and a baffling mid-show “Welcome back” sans interval. It’s less a Broadway spoof and more a disjointed skit, missing the wit to land punches or the tunes to linger.

A Critical Curtain Call

Reviews were savage from the start. The Independent dubbed it an “impoverished-nursery” mess, while The Times recoiled at its “general amateurishness,” lamenting depths unseen in the West End. Bush’s Blair, in a “I wanna be a rock star” T-shirt, screeched through scenes, with Trainor’s lumbering Brown a rare highlight amid the debris. Audiences dwindled—some nights barely half-full—forcing an early end despite hopes of a Christmas boost. At 90 minutes, it still felt endless, its £200,000 investment a theatrical sunk cost by December 29, 2007.

A Dim Legacy

By March 23, 2025, "Blair on Broadway" is a West End footnote, its failure a stark contrast to later Blair satires like Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] at the Park Theatre in 2023. No cast album survives, and its Arts Theatre stint is a trivia tidbit for theatre buffs. It reflects a 2007 appetite for Blair-bashing that outpaced its execution—proof that even a prime target can’t save a show from itself. In a district of polished triumphs, this was a raw reminder: satire demands more than a famous name and a catchy chorus to shine.